A group of international astronomers have discovered three mysterious, ultra-massive galaxies in the early universe. The galaxies – systems of stars, gas, dust, and dark matter – appear in a view from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope like creepy, blood-red glowing eyes. They get their striking color from their extreme amount of dust.

But new research from the James Webb Space Telescope, a collaboration of NASA and its European and Canadian counterparts, is forcing scientists to rethink how galaxies formed in the early universe. A team has discovered three ultra-massive galaxies near the beginning of time,